Mexican president Peña Nieto plagiarised law thesis, report says

Journalists say almost a third of 200-page undergraduate document was not original

Mexican President Enrique Pena Nieto addresses the audience during a special session on global strategy in the war on drugs at the United Nations General Assembly in New York (Reuters)

Mexican President Enrique Peña Nieto plagiarised nearly a third of his 1991 undergraduate law thesis, according to a report published by one of Mexico's leading investigative journalists.

Of the 682 paragraphs that made up the 200-page thesis, titled "Mexican Presidentialism and Alvaro Obregon", 197, or 28.9 percent, were found to be plagiarised, the report said.

The article and accompanying video were published on the website of journalist Carmen Aristegui, whose investigative team revealed in 2014 that Peña Nieto's wife was in the process of acquiring a luxury home from a government contractor.

The Casa Blanca scandal, as it came to be known, dealt a major blow to the reputation of Mr Peña Nieto, whose poll numbers have recently hit all-time lows over perceptions he and his Institutional Revolutionary Party (PRI) have failed to stamp out rampant crime and corruption.

In a statement, government spokesman Eduardo Sanchez sought to play down the accusation of plagiarism, instead calling the omissions “style errors.” He added that Mr Peña Nieto met all the requirements needed to graduate as a lawyer from Panamerican University.

In 2015, Ms Aristegui was dismissed by her employer, MVS Radio, after it accused her and her team of offering, without prior authorisation, the broadcaster's name and funding for a new platform for investigative journalism called Mexicoleaks.

Ms Aristegui argued her dismissal was politically motivated.

Reuters